Research on the Business Model of Shared Electric Bicycle in China: A Case Study of Hello Travel

Abstract

Chinese residents have an extremely high demand for electric bicycles, which is one of the main ways for Chinese residents to travel. After implementation of the new national standard, the electric bicycle regulatory system has gradually matured, and shared electric bicycle products have obtained regulatory licenses. The average daily demand in China exceeds 700 million electric bicycle trips, which promotes the rapid deployment of the shared electric bicycle market. However, after rapid growth in the early stages of development, the shared electric bicycle industry is faced with limited revenue capacity, out of control cost control, and disordered urban environmental governance. In addition, shared mobility will gradually develop and mature from the stage of attracting large amounts of capital investment to the commercial stage of traffic realization, with more stable users and future shared travel. The discount strength of shared travel will be significantly reduced compared to the early stage of industry development, and the growth rate of per capita consumption of shared travel will increase. The business model of shared electric bicycles needs to be further explored and improved. In this study, we take the perspective of an electric bicycle sharing company and try to systematically summarize the sustainable development and operation of the company from the economic, social, and environmental perspectives. This study employs qualitative research methods to analyze the development trend of electric bicycles and business operation models. The literature review examines existing academic literature, synthesizing relevant concepts and theories. A case analysis method is used to study representative electric bicycle companies, identifying strengths and weaknesses in their business models.  After a deep investigation of the whole shared e-bike market and a full understanding of the shared e-bike industry chain, Hello Travel, a leading company in the shared e-bike industry, was selected to explore their business model and its emerging problems, and give relevant countermeasures and suggestions. This research finds that Hello Travel is facing the challenges of limited platform monetization ability, high main business cost and disordered urban environmental governance, and proposes suggestions for the challenges faced by enterprises. This research provides a reference for the business development of shared electric bicycles in China, and plays a role in improving it.

Keywords: shared electric bicycle, Hello Travel, shared economic business model

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Master of Business Administration (International Program), Siam University, Bangkok, Thailand